GNP shutdown to affect 90 workers

EAST MILLINOCKET – For the second time in recent weeks, Great Northern Paper Inc. announced it was temporarily shutting down one of its paper machines, this time at the East Millinocket facility.

The two-week shutdown of machine No. 5, which makes phone directory paper, begins Monday and is expected to affect 90 people in the mill, said Louis Ouellette Jr., vice president of the Local 152 union.

The announcement came during a 2:30 p.m. meeting Friday between GNP supervisors and union officials, giving the union little time to reset schedules and notify the employees, he said.

It also comes a short time after GNP announced that the No. 5 machine in the Millinocket mill was shutting down for two weeks beginning on Dec. 2. Ouellette said the shutdown for the No. 10 machine, which produces a matte-coated paper used for school textbooks, meanwhile has been extended from Dec. 16 to the end of the year. About 40 workers are affected by that shutdown.

“It’s terrible news, we’re already hurting and we’re getting hurt again,” Ouellette said Friday night. Union officials were told the latest shutdown was because of a reduction in orders; that one of the major customers of the directory paper was shutting down for two weeks, Ouellette said.